Press releases

• Exciting finds have come to light during the civil engineering work carried out by Regionetz.
• Experts had already anticipated that archaeological discoveries would be made in this area of the historic city center.
• In the 13th century, two monastery complexes were built in the area of today's theater and its surrounding buildings. Remains of these have now been discovered.

Aachen's theater has been majestically enthroned in its current location for 200 years. Before this neoclassical building was erected and still shapes the cityscape today, old monasteries stood in its place. Archaeologists have now uncovered the remains of these medieval buildings. As part of the redesign of Theaterplatz, Regionetz recently began work on the sewers and pipes. The finds have recently come to light. The construction work is being closely monitored on site by the specialist archaeological company SK ArcheoConsult.
"Two medieval monasteries founded around 1300 have been found in the areas along the Kapuzinergraben," reported city archaeologist Andreas Schaub at a press event on Wednesday (February 19). Together with Patrick Düntzer from ArcheoConsult, Regionetz site manager Ralf Jansen and the city's Theaterplatz project manager Philip Spahr, he presented the initial findings on the archaeological finds and the next steps.


Convent played an important role in the city fire of 1656
The Christensen convent, which was demolished in 1899, was located under the northern block of houses on Theaterplatz / Kapuzinergraben and the original Webbegarden convent, which became the Capuchin convent from 1615, was located on the adjacent Theatervorplatz to the south. The latter included a large monastery garden, which extended under today's theater to the old government building. Up to seven farm and outbuildings are known to exist. The Rochus Chapel, which was demolished in 1825, was located on an island in the monastery pond. Between 1823 and 1825, today's municipal theater was built in place of the monastery area, which was almost completely demolished in 1817.

"The Capuchin monastery not only gave its name to today's Kapuzinergraben. It was also briefly an important location in connection with the city fire of 1656, when the monastery was spared. The cathedral treasury with its important relics found shelter there from the flames. As the town hall was also affected by the fire, the meetings of the municipal magistrate were held in the Capuchin monastery for a while," explained Schaub.

Patrick Dünzter described on site what he and his team had discovered in the past few days. They uncovered impressive remains of medieval quarry stone walls and slab floors from the monastery buildings in the trench where the new canal is to be installed in the future. Remains of graves indicate burials in the monastery grounds. This is consistent with a document from 1315, in which the construction of a cemetery was already permitted.

In cooperation with Regionetz and the LVR Office for the Preservation of Monuments, Aachen's municipal archaeology department is now working towards securing as much of the well-preserved building fabric as possible and only removing parts of it in exceptional cases under archaeological supervision. In any case, the discovery will be comprehensively examined and documented. Meanwhile, construction work continues in the area surrounding the finds.

A new fountain and lots of greenery
The redesign of Theaterplatz and its surroundings, which began at the start of 2025, is part of the "City Center Tomorrow" future process and is one of Aachen's largest urban development projects. As part of the redesign, Aachen can look forward to a large fountain, many additional trees and a square with a high quality of stay, among other things.

Information about Theaterplatz on the Internet: www.theaterplatz-aachen.de.